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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Cleaning’s Role in Preventing Infections

The hospital’s Housekeeping Department is responsible for
the regular and routine cleaning of all surfaces and maintaining a high level
of hygiene in the facility in collaboration with the Infection Control
Committee. The Housekeeping Department’s charge is:

1. Classifying the different hospital areas by varying
need for cleaning;

2. Developing policies for appropriate cleaning
techniques-procedures, frequency, agents used, etc. for each type of room, from
highly contaminated to the most clean and ensuring that these practices are
followed;

3. Providing appropriate training for all departmental
staff both initially and periodically to assess competencies are maintained or
when a new technique, product or piece of equipment are introduced;

4. Establishing methods for the cleaning and disinfection
of the patient’s bed, mattress and pillow;

5. Determining the frequency for the washing/disinfection
of privacy curtains, walls, floors and furniture.

There should be a continuing program for staff training.
This program should stress personal hygiene, the importance of frequent and careful washing of hands, and cleaning methods (e.g., sequence of rooms,
correct use of equipment, dilution of cleaning chemicals and disinfectants,
etc.) Staff should also understand some basic microbiology
including the transmission of disease. Staff should also understand the causes
of surface contamination and how to limit the cross-transmission of organisms.

On September 18, 2012, the National Public Radio (NPR)
aired a segment titled, “Hospitals Fight to Stop Superbugs’ Spread”. Neal
Conan, host, interviewed three guests: Maryn McKenna, author, Superbug: The
Fatal Menace of MRSA; Dr. Eli Perencevich, professor, University of Iowa Carver
College of Medicine; and Dr. Deverick Anderson, co-director, Duke Infection
Control Outreach Network.

The topic centered on the so-called “NIH Superbug”, a
Klebsiella pneumoniae that resists most antibiotics, recently killed a seventh
patient at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Maryland.
Similar outbreaks of health care-associated infections spread in hospitals
across the country every day.

McKenna said, “KPC and other bugs like it, which are
generally known as the highly resistant gram-negatives, they don’t just live on
skin. They live on surfaces that other bugs have difficulty surviving on,
things that aren’t organic and that have very low nutrients and very low
oxygen, like metal, like plastic, like the rails of a bed or the counter that a
computer rests on...And we haven’t thought so much about the environment around
the patient. It turns out that that’s what janitors know really well, or, to be
more polite, building services people or environmental services people. When
they go in the room, they’re not actually focusing on the patient; they’re
focusing on all the stuff around the patient: the bedrails, the counters, and
the call buttons.”

All three guests agreed with scientific studies
demonstrating the role that cleaning plays in saving lives. One well-trained,
conscientious hygiene specialist (i.e., Housekeeper, Matron, etc.) given the
proper tools, time and cleaning chemistry can prevent more infections than a
room full of doctors can cure. Environmental surfaces that are clean and
disinfected make it a safe environment in which patients can recuperate and go
home-without something they didn’t come in with. Cleaning certainly does play a
role in preventing infections and saving lives.

J. Darrel Hicks, BA, REH, CHESP

Author of “Infection Prevention for Dummies”

Go to: www.darrelhicks.com to order your FREE copy of
“Infection Prevention for Dummies” (just pay S&H) or to see other blogs and
articles.

Darrel Hicks is the author of Wiley Publishing's
"Infection Control For Dummies", and is nationally recognized as one
of the top experts in infection control. Darrel is also the immediate Past
President of the IEHA and is an active member in ASHES where he holds the
designation of CHESP. Darrel started his career in the management of
housekeeping services in 1981. He has worked in hospitals ranging in size from
20-500 beds, and knows what it takes to plan, set goals and provide guidance
and consultation to the management team and department(s) staff. He has managed
as many as 13 departments and 170 F.T.E.’s at one time in a 3-hospital system.
In that healthcare system Darrel had to pioneer and discover ways to save money
by cross training staff, job sharing, controlling overtime and putting a system
of controls in place.

1 comment:

It is obvious that cleaning is the best way to stay away from any kind of diseases. So daily cleaning is must. You can remove infected virus that is generated from your office and room. House Cleaning Service